Failsafe
by Long Tongue Liar
Summary: A rewrite of the episode Failsafe and its aftermath. What if Wally died first and Artemis was the last woman standing? Kaldur/Artemis.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice or any characters pertaining to the DC enterprise. I also do not own this plot line, this is just my rewrite of it. An AU setting, if you will. Enjoy!_

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The table is cool under her shoulders. She recoils at the suddenness of it on her bare skin and exhales a tight breath through her teeth. Her grey eyes shift with unease to her left. A familiar gaze meets hers in a tangled instant. Kaldur'ahm gives her a reassuring nod. It's comforting, but it's not enough. Artemis is still getting used to this whole _telepathy_ thing. It's been hard enough letting M'gann link them all and have everyone's voices in her head on missions, but actually submitting to an unconscious training exercise? It rubs her the wrong way. Makes her skin crawl.

"Try to relax," the Martian Manhunter commands from the center of the circle. His deep register eases her shoulders back a little farther onto the cold surface, "We will begin."

Artemis flicks her eyes open one last time. She shifts her head, a tied mane of thick blonde hair spilling down the edge of the table. Kaldur is dutifully relaxed, obedient to a fault. With his eyes closed and hands folded atop his broad chest, he almost looks peaceful. She has always found solace in his aura. The evenness of his dark skin, the ice blue of his eyes, everything about him is steady. They are opposites in this way. Her energy is raw and jagged. His is smooth and unshakeable. They compliment each other and often it relaxes her enough to get her head straight. But today she can't shake her unease. With a huff of breath she closes her eyes and tries to think of something other than how she's about to be violated in the most intimate of ways.

She feels a foreign presence in her head and stiffens.

Then, there is nothing.

The news footage is graphic. The cameras don't spare any pleasantries. Artermis stands towards the back of the group, her eyes flickering back the reflections from the above screens. The Flash and Zatara are lost in hot, orange beams of light. Their skeletons are outlined for a brief moment and then lost forever.

It's strange, but she feels nothing. There's a hollow place in her chest where the grief should be. She watches on with her lips parted ever so slightly as Black Canary and Green Arrow are lost too. Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman –the greatest heroes of her time vanish before her eyes. Kaldur visibly tightens up in front of her. She thinks about putting a hand on his shoulder and then thinks better of it.

In one startling instant, Red Tornado's clipped voice echoes through the cave.

"I fear I am all that remains of the League –"

"RT!" vaguely, she hears Robin's voice in the discord.

Then, Red Tornado is gone too. Orange light is all that remains. The destruction of the world plays out on multiple screens and the team stands in pitched silence. Shadows claw their way through the spaces between them in standing. Artemis hangs her head, feeling a sudden heaviness in her bones.

"We are Earth's heroes now," Kaldur says in a measured tone.

He raises his head when she lowers hers and stares at the screen with purpose. He is a soldier. He's been trained for hardship like this. She can think of no one better fit to lead them. To lead Earth.

There is conversation of a game plan. Superboy is ready to hit anything that moves. Kid Flash and Robin stand side by side, arms crossed. Kaldur presents a strategic system of attack with a diplomatic tone. Artermis is barely listening. Hot, orange flashes of light keep sprouting up in her vision. Her ambivalence frightens her. Everything around her feels grey. Something is _wrong_.

So as soon as they are given a moment alone while the team regroups toward the bioship, she pulls him into a corner. Steady and sure, his presence unravels her.

"Artemis," he murmurs. It's as much of a warning as it is an invitation. His gills flex at his throat and he watches her with predatory blue eyes.

She says nothing and only stares down at their feet. They communicate wordlessly, never missing a beat. He reaches a heavy arm around her waist and brings her close to him. Her face presses against his chest and he lowers own to the cavern of her shoulder. They don't need to speak. The moment is enough. A quiet embrace that doesn't last longer than a few seconds. To give one another something sure to hold on to while the rest of the world crumbles around them. They share a kiss. Brief and fleeting, it might even look chaste to an outside observer. But it's far from it. Her body comes alive when they part. His mimics hers. The tattoos wrapped around his arms glow just faintly blue until he leans away from her and they return to darkness.

That is all the time they're given. They sit across the floor from each other on the ship and barely glance in one another's direction. The ship is quiet. Even in the aftermath, everyone is either numb or just as uncharacteristically unfeeling as she is. It's unsettling. It makes her skin itch. She's too hot under the camouflaged arctic costume M'gann has fashioned for her. Her skin needs to breathe. Taut muscle flexes against the material, begging to touch cool air. Her fingers drum on her knees. They itch for a bow. For her quiver. For Kaldur's smooth skin. Things that make sense.

Things move in a blur once the air changes to ice and the foreground turns to white. The alien aircraft attacks are calculated, almost like they think for themselves. She hides behind a makeshift overhang of ice and plucks a bow as delicately as one would finger a violin. She turns, pivots her heel and lets one fly. The white tundra explodes with orange. Something tickles in the back of her head and she pushes it away.

Conner rips the canon from the incapacitated ship. Artemis sees the two approaching ships even before Kaldur's strong voice booms inside her head.

"_Miss Martian, open fire!"  
"Can't! Weapons systems are offline to incorporate new cannon!"_

Artemis doubles back, fully prepared to create a distraction. A blur of white passes her instead and Wally's voice echoes inside the walls of her skull. She can almost hear the smirk touched to his words.

"Got it covered guys!"

She watches him go for half a second before turning, sprinting back toward the ship. Her boots pound in the knee-deep snow. A sweat breaks along her brow. Her heart smashes in her chest. She can hear Kid Flash's self-induced tornado rip one of the ships down to the Earth. The explosion fans heat at her back. Running, running, one foot in front of the other. She's almost at the threshold of the bioship when M'gann screeches inside her head.

"_Look out!"_

Artemis turns, expecting her imminent doom. She pulls an arrow. Like Hell she's going down without a fight. But upon turning, she finds the warning was not meant for her. Her mouth opens in an 'O' of unmasked horror as the cannon from the first ship points and fires.

"WALLY!" Robin cries.

There is a glimpse of his skeleton, the lightning insignia, and then nothing.

Artemis drops to her knees. The levee holding her emotion back disintegrates and all Hell breaks loose.

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	2. Chapter 2

All the emotion that had eluded her all morning finds her in a sharp, sudden flash. It sears through her chest. Knocks the wind right out of her. The snow wets the material across her knees and she sways in her bent position until she comes to sit on her heels. The mind-link wave is silent. The rest of the team is still reeling. No one can move. No one except Kaldur.

"Everyone get back to the ship, _now_!" he yells.

He sprints through the snow. She sees the vibrant blue glow of his arms in the wintry mix as he pulls his weapons from his back. He has composure when they have all lost their own. It is what makes him a good leader, but it is also what makes him cold. He roars a harsh battle cry into the icy wind and whips the charged water out. A direct hit on the ship that killed Wally. It crashes to the snow with a thunderous nose and an achingly familiar orange glow. Its destruction is not satisfying. It is empty and hollow. Just like the place Wally was last standing.

The others retreat back to the ship upon instruction. Mindlessly, Artemis staggers to her feet to join them. She backtracks in the slush up the ramp but hangs by the threshold. She can't bring herself to leave. Wally was like a brother to all of them. There's a hole in her stomach where his absence has driven through. She's too stunned to cry.

Kaldur comes running back and grips the inside of her elbow. His touch is firm.

"Come," he instructs. At this proximity, she can hear the pain in his voice.

She follows him back up the ramp and it closes with one last gush of freezing wind. The bioship takes flight. No one speaks. M'gann sobs softly from the chair in the center. Robin hangs his head. Conner looks straight ahead and in the shadows Artemis can see a muscle in his jaw jumping. Artemis parts from her steady leader to sink into her own seat. The organic seatbelts wrap around her and the wintry costume fades. In its wake is her old ensemble. It should be comforting. Now her skin can breathe. Her olive toned abdomen flexes with trembling breath, her wiry arms bare and clenched to her sides. It should feel better. But instead of feeling free, she just feels _cold_. The bioship itself is warm but she's suddenly freezing. As if she's run right back into the arms of the tundra in nothing but her skin, searching for Wally in the snow with her bare hands.

M'gann is still crying. It might be barely audible if the ship wasn't silent otherwise. Kaldur suddenly stands from his seat.

"There is no time for mourning, not now," he says. His voice is compassionate but appropriately commanding. Artemis closes her eyes to let the deep baritone fill her up. "We still have a job to do."

Her eyes flicker open to take in his figure. He stands at the center of the ship, an anchor. He's the only thing stable object, the rest of them continue to float. No one speaks, but every eye watches him. The broad line of his shoulders casts a firm shadow. His silver eyes flash in the shadows.

"Kid Flash's death will not have been in vain."

The words are exactly what the others need to hear. Some kind of fire to keep burning in their chests. Artermis feels the spark start in her own and she nods in agreement. It felt for a moment like there was nothing left to fight for. Kaldur has reminded them that there is. M'gann wipes her eyes and takes her hands on the dual helm once more.

"Back to the cave?" she asks in a voice so strong it motivates Artemis to rearrange her face into a mask of courage.

"To the Hall of Justice," Kaldur corrects.

Artemis and he meet eyes for a split second in the discord. The look isn't much, but its enough to communicate. They each remember the moment they shared just an hour earlier. It's all Artemis an do to keep from jumping out of her seat and repeating the display right there in the ship. His steady arms, warm skin and pounding heartbeat –these things still make sense, but this is hardly the time to indulge in them. The look has to be enough to satiate her. She nods into his silver, reflective eyes and he nods back.

Then she stares straight ahead, and doesn't actually see a thing.

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The city is a warzone. Artemis collects herself enough to look past the windows of the bioship down to the desolation below. Tanks line the streets. Gunfire creates a low hum below them and fire catches on the faces of skyscrapers.

"Straight ahead," M'gann alerts the team.

Two ships are positioned in front of them. A hot ball of anger rises in her stomach as she watches the familiar black gleam of the hulls, the orange cannons. It's almost a relief Conner speaks up first because she probably would have first if he hadn't.

"Let me out, I'll take one from above."

The bioship complies. A hole opens up and M'gann positions it over the first of the alien craft. Conner drops through the hole and lands on the top with a resounding bang. The echo of his roar follows him into the atmosphere.

Artemis gets up and positions herself by the open hole in the floor of the ship.

"Don't," Robin warns, perhaps afraid to lose her too.

"I'm not jumping," she murmurs.

Her arm flies back and she readies a bow. One eye closes, the other aims. She sees the tip of the other ship and releases her fingers. The arrow catches the tail of the ship and it explodes with a satisfying crack. Conner's ship tumbles to the ground along with it. Artemis rises to her feet and clutches her quiver in her hands. It still doesn't feel satisfying. She wants to destroy them all. Ending one just barely scratches the surface of her rage.

M'gann brings the ship down in front of a military line of tanks and dirt smudged soldiers that stand guarding the Hall of Justice. The ramp opens up and a thunderous applause meets her ears. Artemis bites back a scream. They shouldn't be cheering. Joy is misplaced here.

The team exits. Robin goes first, then M'gann. Artemis pauses, frozen in place, before she feels Kaldur's hand on the middle of her back. They stand alone in the empty ship. Her eyes move to the side where Wally should be sitting. Then she moves back to the crowd waiting outside. The collective yells and hopeful noises.

"They need us," Kaldur murmurs from behind her.

Her eyes close, "I know." But still, her feet won't move.

"I will be right beside you."

He promises this with a nod, and one foot finally steps in front of the other. Shoulder to shoulder, the two emerge into the diluted sunlight to the waiting crowd of buoyant faces. Kaldur moves forward to shake hands with the older man at the front of the line.

"General Robert Eeling, U.S Airforce," he introduces himself.

"Aqualad," Kladur shakes his hand and then looks back to the group of young heroes behind him, "Justice League."

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